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GENERAL INTL. 30-060HC Price: $700 Warranty: 3 years Cutters: 26 Size: 13 in. Depth stops: 8 Snipe: 0.002 Out of parallel: 0.008 Dust collection: Good Noise level: 101 db. Surface quality White pine: Good White oak: Good Curly maple: Poor GRIZZLY G0790 Price: $285 Warranty: 1 year Knives: 2 Size: 121⁄2 in. Depth stops: None Snipe: 0.004 in. Out of parallel: 0.013 in. Dust collection: Fair Noise level: 99 db Surface quality White pine: Good White oak: Good Curly maple: Poor the screws were small, and the Allen wrench provided was hard to use. The machine has a single dust port that’s not a standard size, and I needed tape to connect a hose to it. Two rollers on the top of the machine make returning material to the infeed side easy, and they’re stable enough that you can stack boards on them, too. The Grizzly is one of four planers that do not have a gauge indicating how much material is about to be removed on the next pass through the machine. K nife changes on the Grizzly planer were tricky, because access was tight, he General International is one of two planers in the test with a segmented cutterhead (the Rikon 25-130H is the other). The 26 cutters, arranged in six rows, enter the wood straight on. Each cutter has two cutting edges, and can be rotated to get a fresh edge. However, rotating and changing out the cutters is a bit tricky because there is no cutterhead lock, so it tends to move as you loosen and tighten the screw for a cutter. A dust chute on the outfeed side of the machine has both a 21⁄2-in. and 4-in.-dia. port, one exiting to each side. The top of the machine is large and flat, a great place to rest boards between passes. T MAKITA 2012NB Price: $546 Warranty: 1 year Knives: 2 Size: 12 in. Depth stops: One, but it’s adjustable Snipe: 0.003 in. Out of parallel: 0.002 in. Dust collection: Fair Noise level: 98 db. Surface quality White pine: Very good White oak: Very good Curly maple: Fair f the planers with two-knife cutterheads, the Makita produced the best surface quality. The knives are very narrow and a bit tricky to change, but Makita provides two magnets for lifting them off the cutterhead, and these make it easier. The machine’s dust port is an odd size, with an outside diameter of approximately 27⁄8 in. I used an adapter to connect it to a 4-in.-dia. hose, but dust collection was only fair. Finally, a full revolution of the height-adjustment wheel moves the cutterhead 3⁄32 in. The other machines move 1⁄16 in. with a complete revolution of the handle, a dimension that’s much easier to work with because the most common thicknesses for furniture are in multiples of 1⁄16 in. O 48 FINE WOODWORKING